The house, with its low masonry wall topped with bamboo strips, appears neat and clean. In its living room, recycled ornaments graced the walls of the three-by-four-meter space.
In a corner, stood a Christmas tree fashioned from old plastic bottles. A couple of flower pots hung on the wall were also made from similar bottles. On the coffee table in the corner of the room, lay a work in progress – an unfinished composition made of cigarette packs.
“This will be made into flowers,” said Albina Abong, pointing to the cigarette packs.
As she spoke in her living room at her home in Lorong TK Immaculata, Waioti, Maumere, the main town in Sikka District on Flores Island on March 21, 2023, the 45-year-old woman’s hands were busy working, cutting, assembling, gluing, and coloring the cigarette packs. She sat comfortably on the red carpet covering most of her living room.
Within her reach was all she needed to work on this recycling handicraft. Some cleaned plastic bottles were neatly piled on the corner of the carpet.
“A handicraft like the Christmas tree needs between ten and 11 bottles while for other wall ornaments only one or two bottles are enough, with some beads to decorate,” Abong said.
All her materials, mostly plastic waste, come from Maumere’s Pasar Tingkat, a downtown market named after the two floors of its front building.
Together with her husband Yosep Loku (47), Abong operates a stall offering tailoring services at that market — the disabled couple’s main source of income.
Every late afternoon, just before heading home, Abong gathers pieces of trash such as discarded cigarette packs, plastic bottles, and various plastic wrappers. These are items she could use to make handicrafts.
What she makes is not sold but kept for herself or given away to friends or neighbors.
Wearing rubber gloves, she digs into the trash container next to her. She said she was not embarrassed to pick up trash as whatever she took could later be turned into useful things.
She recounted that she began to pick things up from the trash and turn them into handicrafts when her oldest child was one year old. The said child was now a final-year student at the Ledalero Institute for Philosophy and Creative Technology on the outskirts of Maumere.
Abong was certain that her recycling activity also contributed to her children’s character-building. She always taught them not to litter and often made them join her crafts.
“When I’m bored with sewing, I process waste materials into doormats, decorations, and more,” she said.
Her children watch what she does. One day, her children will follow suit in her awareness of recycling waste, she says.
Now her eldest and third children pursue higher education in Maumere. While her second has chosen to help his parents. Three others are in eighth, sixth, and third grade.
Albina says her husband was initially uncomfortable with the amount of trash in the house.
“Now he actually picks up trash that I can process to bring home,” Albina said laughing.
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Educating community members
Albina did not just share her knowledge with her husband and children. She also educated her friends with disabilities about using waste as raw material for making handicrafts of economic value.
On several occasions, she has trained people with disabilities in the Kewapante sub-district, Sikka district, to make mats from leftover fabrics.
“In two days, disabled friends can already produce one mat. They are grateful for the ability to produce their own handicrafts,” Albina said.
“Friends with disabilities shouldn’t be ashamed to learn about and use scraps, because they will produce goods that are useful for many people if pursued properly and seriously,” she said.
Dominika Du’a, 58, a disabled person from Kewapante, said she was thankful for the training she received from Abong in mid-2021. Along with 14 other disabled individuals, she learned how to make mats using various leftover cloth pieces.
“I gained a lot of experience from that training. One month after the training I came up with the idea to set up sewing services and it’s still running now,” Du’a said.
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Waste in the markets
At Pasar Tingkat, garbage is not a strange sight for vendors or visitors. Trading activities leave behind both organic and inorganic waste, including fabric.
A cleaning staff would collect the garbage and upload it onto a truck that carried them to a landfill in Wae Rii in the same district of Sikka. There is no prior sorting of the waste.
The district market agency, which manages Pasar Tingkat, does not have data on the amount of garbage produced daily at the market but the head of the district’s Trade, Cooperative and Industry Office, Yosef Benyamin, said that garbage is routinely picked up every day and there were 16 personnel responsible for keeping the market clean.
However, Benyamin said, routine waste transportation from the market to the landfill is still an obstacle. Waste transportation is the responsibility of the Sikka environment office.
“Sometimes the environment agency is slow in handling the transportation of garbage collected in garbage containers around the market. This results in garbage piling up for days and causing unpleasant odors and garbage scattered on the road,” said Benyamin.
Silvester Saka, Head of the Sikka environment office, admitted that his office often falls behind in transporting waste. Saka said this happens because they lack the number of fleets.
“The office only has three trucks and two arm roll trucks to transport waste from all over the district. In total, only 250 cubic meters of waste can be transported every day,” Saka explained. “There is also a lot of uncollected waste from within the city. About 80.5 cubic meters every day.”
Waste management should be a joint effort, said Saka, not just the environment office’s responsibility. Collaboration and coordination of all agencies are needed in tackling the waste problem.
Silvester also urged the community to work together in managing waste and keeping the environment clean. “If not, the 2-hectare landfill that is targeted to accommodate waste for 5 years will be full before its time,” he said.
Outdated scheme
The East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) chapter of the Indonesia Forum for Environment (WALHI) believes that waste management in districts and cities in NTT is still based on the “collect, transport, and dispose” scheme. A scheme, according to WALHI, is outdated and should no longer be used.
In a press statement, the Head of the Natural Resources Management and Campaign Division of WALHI NTT, Yuvensius Stefanus Nonga, explained that the scheme of handling waste must be in accordance with the spirit of Law Number 18/2008 on Waste Management.
Waste, said Yuvensius, must be seen as a natural resource that can be processed into economic goods. For example, waste can be processed into compost or crafts with economic value. Therefore, Walhi NTT encourages all parties to participate in waste management, including the administration and community
WALHI NTT believes Abong’s work has a positive impact on environmental health and appreciates her efforts in recycling plastic waste.
WALHI NTT’s media coordinator, Mesron Nome, said Abong’s creativity must be supported by the government. This can pave the way for many more Abongs who care about waste problems.
“We really appreciate the initiatives of citizens who are trying to tackle waste, even though it is not directly proportional to the waste produced every day,” said Nome.
Repurposing waste for crafts to make a living, says Nome, is a creative way to address the waste problem, especially in urban areas. “It must be replicated,” he said.